Damning Dragons
by DaZen Lemon
Summary: There are approximately sixtytwo days until the attack of NeoAtlantis. Can an original Atlantian man, Egyptian girl, and Celtic woman beat the clock before Egypt is destroyed? Each day brings them closer to Egypt's final hour, and every second passed is a
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimers: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any part of it except for several pieces of merchendise.

A/N: Shi-chan and I decided to do something different with SALT, which will probably be changed in title so that it makes sense to go with the BIG plot change. I changed a few names, too. Nyehh, hopefully the re-rewrites won't go TOO badly...

00000

Running, running. Always running. Why couldn't she walk for a change? She didn't even remember what she was running from, either. All she knew was that it would be very bad if she stopped running. Blurred images of aqua-green and gold eyes flashed through her mind, no matter how hard she tried to make it stop. The sun beat down on her back and burned her shoulders.

000

He decided to take a break at the oasis; he needed water anyways. Besides, it wasn't like the pharaoh was expecting him. There was no way to let him know he was coming. He was just wandering around when it happened, and though it was disturbing, he didn't feel that it was of any great importance just yet. He decided to sleep as the sun sank beneath the sands of Egypt.

000

The moon invigorated her as it did every year at that time. Back home, they were celebrating Samhain, though the way it was spelled was different from the way it was said. She frolicked through the moonbeams, kicking up sand, her Fey-blessed eyes glittering and reflecting the light as she looked to the stars. She stumbled into an oasis amidst her celebrating, and though she was shocked at seeing green and water in the middle of the desert, she was more surprised that there was a young man laying under a tree.

000

There was a strange heaviness to the air, as if a powerful presence had come and gone from the oasis with the night. As always, he rose with the sun and paid the feeling no mind. He was curious, but he felt paranoid when he glanced around to see if the owner of the presence was still there. Finding no one, he continued toward the pharaoh.

000

At high noon, she was still afraid, and kept running. She was close to refuge, she had to be. She was sure of it. She was near those that would protect her. Her hand clutched at the necklace she sported. Images blurred at the edges of her vision, but she was going too fast to realize where she was or that there were angry men shouting at her for upturning their stalls. She had to keep going. She was almost there... almost... WHAM!

000

He strolled into Thebes at his own pace. Deciding that confronting the pharaoh was not a good idea so close to nightfall, he explored the area, forming a map in his head. If he had to run from anything later, he would be prepared. He swore to himself over and over again that he would not get caught like he did last time.

000

She made it to Thebes just barely ahead of the slavers. The poor girl had been sleeping underneath in an oasis under a tree, and was found earlier that afternoon. She had been running for so long, but the slavers refused to give up, shouting things to each other that she couldn't understand. She dodged around still upturned stalls, fearing that she would have to run all night and into the dawn.

Her fears were realized. She supposed that the slavers had switched out several times in order to follow her, but she didn't dare turn around to see if the men chasing her were the ones that found her earlier. She turned sharply around a corner just as the sun was rising over the sand dunes, and ran right into someone. The feeling she got from this person was familiar, and, looking up at him, she recognized him as the man that she had seen in the oasis the previous night. His eyes were a pale silver, and at first she thought he might be blind. He looked back at her, though, so he couldn't have been.

She didn't get a chance to aplologize or explain her predicament before he had carted her off by her wrist around two more corners and covered her with his cloak. He held her shoulder, silently telling her to remain silent while he pretended to inspect a piece of jewelery on the stall they stood before. The slavers ran right by them. The sleeping man at the stall regarded them curiously, but didn't ask any questions when the girl's savior led her away.

00000

Not quite the same as the previous versions of this, eh? I really shouldn't be putting anything up until we know for sure what we're going to be doing with this. Who knows, I might decide I don't like this version and change it again. :P Nahh, that won't happen. I don't know if anyone would care, though, seeing has how the YGO boom is over. Not a very loyal fandom, eh? Not a very mature one, either. I haven't found that many good YGO fics where one of the main bish characters wasn't with a Mary-Sue OC. (cougheri-chan'sficcough) Not very many people are good at keeping the characters _in_ character, either. I try my best, I know that! T.T

That being said about the YGO fandom, I'm holding the next chapter hostage for three reviews. Just a "plz cntinue" will work. I'd like to know that this is being read by someone online, because I know that a few of my friends are reading this and liking it. If no one likes it here, then eh, I won't update. No big deal to me.


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimers: I don't own anything to do with Yu-Gi-Oh! except a few peices of merchendise.

A/N: This is a relatively new way of writing for me. I mean, the way it's put together. The last chapter went Day-Dusk-Night-Dawn-Day-Dusk-Night-Dawn, but the second Night-Dawn was streamlined and went together for reasons I have yet to reveal. I hope I made that clear enough.

Please note that I have spent a LOT of time researching Egyptian, Celtic, Aztec, and Atlantian things just so that I can make this story run smoothly. I know I haven't been historically accurate in the past, but I'm doing my best now. Given the fact that Yuugi is just living as the pharaoh right now and has not really had any "friends" I've adjusted his attitude to fit his Godly position. I'm not kidding! Pharaohs were treated like Gods in ancient Egypt! You think YOU wouldn't get a swelled head from that?

Also, the only place where they actually call the Egyptian king "pharaoh" is in the bible. I don't think Egyptians would have read that if they were "heathen". Hence, they don't call the pharaoh "pharaoh" in my story.

**Heka:** Egyptian word for magic

00000

She sprang up to a sitting position, and was alarmed that she didn't recognize her surroundings. She was in a large room, with bright sunlight pouring through the small windows. She felt safe, and she wondered if she had found her refuge. A sudden panicked thought flashed before her mind, and she felt at her neck. She relaxed at finding that her necklace in she shape of the symbol for eternal life was still securely around her neck.

The door opened, and someone entered.

000

He was getting very annoyed very quickly. He never thought that such a sweet-looking 18-year-old could be so aggrivating. No amount of forsight could have warned him of her attitude. She was disinclined to follow directions, and she whined about being out in the sun.

Though he knew she thrived on the night, he didn't think that dusk compltely counted as daylight. It was bad enough he had given up his sleep at night in order to protect her from the slavers. Not only that, but she had thrown his entire system out of sync because of her nocturnal habits. If she had been closer to his age, he would have forced her to comply to his own habits. Since he was three years her senior, he decided to let her keep to her own established routine. After all, when he was that age, his mentor treated him in very much the same fashion.

"You still haven't told me your name!" the girl whispered harshly. They were in the process of changing locations to evade the slavers. He ignored her for a moment longer. She still wore his heavy cloak, so as to hide her reddish hair, but she couldn't look anyone directly in the eyes, or else she would give away the fact that she was a foreigner. His own foreign hair was covered by a lighter cloak, and he let people believe that he was blind. He had gotten very good at looking at everything in front of him instead of focusing on one thing, so as to keep up the act.

"Hey!" she hissed. "Is it that you want to know my name first? My name is Chine, so what's yours?" In his mind, he spelled her name as Tine.

He pulled the girl into a narrow alley between two houses, and kept her out of the line of sight by blocking the passage with his own body as the slavers ran by.

It was dawn before the slavers finally gave up. The two sat down in a back alley behind an empty house. The girl - Tine, she called herself - sat down in the dirt. He sat next to her.

"Why are you helping me?" she asked.

"Because you're not like them," he told her.

"Egyptian?"

"No," he shook his head. "It... I can't explain it. You're just more like me."

"So what's your name?" she inquired again.

"Why do you want to know my name so badly?"

"Because I'm not used to being rescued by strangers. Not knowing your name makes you a stranger, and it's really bugging me." She frowned for a moment. "And you speak Gaelic. We're in Egypt. I don't get it."

"I speak lots of languages," he said evasively.

"Did you just learn them by yourself?"

"Where I come from, we spoke a lot of languages."

Tine hugged her knees to her chest and stared at the ground. "I can only speak Gaelic," she told him. "I couldn't understand a thing they were saying. But they tried to take me with them forcefully, so... I ran."

"I'll translate for you," he promised. "Just stay with me."

There were a few minutes of comfortable silence between them.

"So what's your name?" she asked again.

"Gahh," he chuckled. "My name is Damais."

000

The girl was taken into the throne room, where there were larger windows and, of course, a throne. Six people stood in two lines in front of the throne. Realizing she was in the presence of the king, she prostrated herself in submission and adoration, startled at herself for almost looking directly at him. A tall man with dark skin and angular eyes approached her. He held out a key that was reminicent to an ankh, and her vision turned hazy. There were fuzzy images, and she could sense her mind being probed.

Suddenly her vision cleared, and the man recoiled his arm as if struck. The girl found herself on her hands and knees, looking at the wielder of the key. Another man that seemed less harsh and bore a circle with conical charms hanging off it said in alarm, "Shada?"

"What did you see?" said the priest with the gold rod. He did not look pleased.

"Inside this girl's mind... the Ka moves so fast I can't see it. It's like it's everywhere at once," Shada announced.

Of course she knew this. He had frightened her, and she had tried to escape, or at least evade him. She had tried every escape route she could come up with, and with her abilities, it didn't take her long to realize that all her escapes were blocked off. She had thrashed around in vain, and had eventually succeeded in driving Shada out of her mind. It was a small miracle for which she thanked the gods.

"Is she aware?" asked the king. The girl slumped her shoulders, suddenly realizing how tired she was. The sleep she had that night wasn't really sleep; she was unconscious, and she had been running for a long time. She didn't want to stand up.

"Yes," Shada nodded. She could feel him nod, though she didn't see it. "She exudes an aura that would be dominating if she were at her peak. In your presence, Great One, she is outmatched."

"What else can you do, girl?" a female - a priestess - asked. The girl managed to raise her head enough to look at the woman. She was garbed in a white robe, and a tauk was secured around her neck. When she didn't respond fast enough to the priestess' liking, she asked again, "What else can you do?" She seemed confident that the girl had other abilities besides her complicated awareness.

"I can move things," the girl replied. She was nervous about speaking. The king hadn't given her permission to talk.

The priest with the rod scoffed. "Everyone can move things," he sneered. "It just requires the proper application of muscle."

"No, I..." with a sigh, the girl gave up, and looked around the room. She couldn't find anything loose, and she sorely didn't want to take off her necklace. Since Shada was closest... Oh, but she _really_ didn't want to have to talk to him...!

"May I see your ring?" she asked, struggling to get her tired body to stay upright on her feet. Shada was reluctant, but removed the gold ring from his finger and handed it to the girl. She held it in the open palm of her hand.

Closing her eyes, she focused briefly on the ring in her hand, and got a feel for it in her mind. It lifted into the air. She opened her eyes, and found herself looking directly at the pharaoh. She quickly averted her eyes, though his image was burned into her mind. His hair was at odds for being Egyptian, being black, red, and blond all at the same time, and standing up in spikes and lightning-bolt shapes. He seemed surprised. His hand seemed to grasp the inverted gold pyramid at his neck almost out of reflex.

"I told you," she said to the rod-toting priest, though she studied the ground, "I can move things."

"How far?" the same priest demanded.

"If I showed you that, something would break," she responded.

"You have three forms of **heka**," Shada said. "One is your awareness. The second is your ability to move things. What is your third?"

The ring moved through the air back toward its owner, who replaced it on his finger. The girl's arm fell heavily to her side. "I can... find things, I guess."

"What do you mean, you 'guess'?" a priest with a gold eye demanded.

She shrugged. "If I'm allowed to see something that was close to a person, I can find the person. If the person describes the item to me, I can find the item. It's... complicated." She started to nod off, but caught herself, and looked back at the priests with too-wide eyes. She didn't want to know if it was punishable to fall asleep in the presence of the son of Ra.

"Show us," the priest with the rod ordered.

"Seth!" the priestess cried. "She is tired!"

"That is no excuse for her to not show us her third power!" the rod-priest, Seth, countered. "If she is to be allowed in the palace and trusted--"

"Then she must be properly rested in order to show us her full abilities," the earthly God delivered. The girl shivered at the sound of his voice. "She will spend the night in a guest chamber and show us her third power in the morning."

"Thank you," the girl whispered, bowing her head.

"One last thing, though," the Lord of Egypt insisted. "What is your name?"

The girl hesitated for a moment, fingering nervously at the silver amulet around her neck. She didn't remember her name, but she couldn't explain that to her Lord, lest he think she was mocking him. "A-Ankh," she announced. It was terribly plain for an Egyptian name, but then she didn't think it mattered, since she wasn't of any royal or significant heritage.

000

"I'm hungry," Tine announced.

Damais ignored her.

"Are you listening to me? I said I'm hungry!"

Damais ignored her.

"Hey, you multi-linguist ass, are you deaf?"

"Please refrain from using such language, thank you."

Moments passed.

"I'm still hungry!"

You'd think she'd never been hungry before.

"So what do you want me to do about it?" Damais surprised himself. He had never been that snappish before.

"Eat something, of course." Tine folded her arms and tossed her hair over her shoulder with an experienced twist of her neck. It was just starting to get long enough that she had to do it again.

"Do you have any money?"

"No, you're supposed to."

"Sorry to disappoint you."

Tine stopped in her tracks. Sensing that she wasn't following any more, Damais turned to look at her. Suddenly, a torch seemed to ignite behind her eyes. She grinned. In a sing-song voice, she announced, "I have an idea..."

000

She felt much better after a night of actual sleep. She was actually surprised that it was so late in the day, and no one had come to wake her yet. She was supposed to prove her third ability that day.

The priest with the round gold item and the conical charms entered the room. "I am the priest Madaho," he announced. "Our Lord has deemed me the one that will follow you to whomever you find." He offered up the cloak he had draped over his arm. "You are to find the owner of this."

Ankh, as she was newly dubbed, groggily made her way over to the priest. She touched the garment, then took it, holding it at arm's length and inspecting it. It was a deep purple shade, and was in good condition, albeit somewhat ratty from harsh sand-filled desert winds. She got a feel for the energy of the owner, and felt the energy pull her out the door. Madaho followed wordlessly, one eyebrow arched.

000

Damais ran through the events from the previous night while he finished his rabbit leg. Tine devised a rather ingenious, and rather devious, plan to aquire food. Since Damais was good at playing blind, he was to "accidentally" run into something and knock it over, specifically one of the food vendors. It was a big blow to his ego, as he had never really done anything like that before. In the middle of the skirmish, Tine would descend upon the cart and swipe some food, hiding it under her cloak.

His curiosity was piqued. She swooped in almost as if she was invisible. In fact, if he hadn't known she would be there, he was certain he would have overlooked her. It came naturally to her to blend in so well and be overlooked. He wondered if there was anything else she could do that he didn't know about.

Tossing the bone listlessly over his shoulder, he sighed. His mission to speak with the Egyptian king was not working out in his favor. Already he had lost four days after rescuing the girl from the slavers that had persued her so eagerly for two days. If his prediction was correct, he could waste no more time. He would give this predicament with Tine another day, send her on her merry way, and speak with the king.

A rat scurried through the alley. Damais half expected Tine to scream, but instead she looked at the animal as if she understood it.

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing," was the reply. He knew it was a lie.

Images briefly flashed before his eyes. He didn't recognize the girl in the vision, and so he decided to try and evade her. He stood swiftly and moved down the alley, coming out onto a small street. Tine followed, eating a bunch of grapes.

When he started moving, he could hear another pair of feet move nearby. They stopped for a moment.

Two people. Two people were following him.

He quickly whispered to Tine for her to pull her hood up. She did so unquestioningly, having discovered Damais' glimpses of the most likely future. She also knew he could space-shift, but he couldn't very well take her with him when he did so. Back in her home, they called it teleporting. Damais had explained that it was slightly different than teleporting, but she didn't exactly understand the differences.

Rounding a corner of a house, Damais expected to lose his followers by circling back around one house, waving through three more alleyways and coming out back to this street.

He didn't know that the girl chasing him was aware of this. While Damais and his recent companion rounded the corner, she stopped, darting across alleyway entrances so as not to be seen, and waiting around corners. All the alleyways in the area networked together and all came back out onto the one street, and there were only three ways out of the network. It was a simple thing to guard them.

She felt his presence, coming from the alleyway farthest from her. She ran to the alley, and as the man exited, she tackled him to the ground, sending them both rolling before she pinned him, his back to her. Another person exited the alleyway shortly after, but Madaho was quick and caught her wrist with an iron grip.

Once Ankh regained her breath, she asked the man, "This cloak I'm wearing, does it belong to you?"

Damais couldn't believe it. Even with his precognitive abilities, he was still outmanouvered by a girl that was at least five years younger than him. Two years younger than Tine.

For her part, Tine struggled valiantly, but not enough to cause the hood to fall from her head.

Ankh allowed herself a little swell of triumph. While the man had looped around a house and through three alleys, and while he ran rampant, trying to escape, she calmly waited, guarding his exits. He had been a trapped rat, but he hadn't known it.

When they got back to the palace (Damais walked willingly, but Madaho couldn't relinquish his grip on the other girl) Ankh was taken to her room by a palace slave. That was the last of her that Damais and Tine saw of her until morning well and truely came.

00000

Yikes! I actually got three reviews! I didn't even have the chapter done! Ehe, sorry 'bout that! But it _was_ next-day delivery!

**K-chan:** I shouldn't even be counting your review. You already read this-- er... I read it TO you... but you also READ it... Grr.

**Seething-Z:** Mary Sue characters are evil, and I do my damnedest to keep any of the characters I work with away from being a Mary Sue or Gary Stu. I think it actually comes from just pairing an OC with a canon character that makes them a Mary/Gary. I read your review and I had to laugh. I guess that "plz" is what I get for being such an idiot, lol!

**Alex aka Page:** I'm so not counting your review... and... my computer crashed... I lost the yaoi... DON'T HURT ME! Additionally... (bashes you with a paper fan) How dare you tell me to screw a fanfiction. Have you no shame!

**DarkAngel4u:** Wait wait wait... I have a style? (examines the chapters closely) ... OH! There! Okay, I see it now!

**Next chapter held ransom for **uh... mm... I haven't even started it yet... **five reviews and a day to finish the chapter!**


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimers: I don't own anything related to Yu-Gi-Oh! except a deck and some posters. I CLAIM NO MEMBERSHIP TO THIS CRAPPY YGO FANDOM LEAGUE! (grumbles incoherently)

A/N: Sorry; this chapter came out a lot slower than I thought it would.

I'm having my doubts about this being K+ (9+). I mean, I know there's _some_ language used here, the title is a hum-dinger of an example. But just for content, I think. I don't expect the average (note, I said **_average_**) 10-year-old to understand that ancient Egyptians weren't modest. I mean, c'mon, they're working in temperatures that can get up to 120-degrees (I think the book said fahrenheit) in summer. Sometimes they worked naked. And dancers (all female) performed either in nothing or barely anything around their hips. Clothes were form-fitting.

On another, note, I am REALLY ticked off at Kazuki Takahashi! Don't get me wrong, I like YGO and everything, but he did a crap-job on researching Egypt, if he really searched anything IN Egypt other than the clothing! And even THAT is screwed up! Even the PRIESTS weren't allowed to speak if the pharaoh didn't grant him permission! I subscribe to Shonen Jump, where they're publishing the Egyptian arc of YGO (which should come to anime soon, I guess). Not only do they use Japanese names ("Seto" is SO NOT an Egyptian name! Egypt DID NOT trade with Japan!) but Seth (Seto's priestly past life) HAS A FRIKKEN' FULL HEAD OF HAIR! Priests did NOT have hair on their heads! And it's the same with Miroku from InuYasha! He has hair! Not supposed to! Okay, I get that Miroku is a special case (he's "cursed" and all... wooo...) but SETH SHOULD BY ALL RIGHTS BE BALD! And Madaho's little apprentice chick? Grrr, I have problems with her. She's supposed to be Egyptian, yet she has BLOND hair. Egyptians had BLACK hair. Robes didn't form cute little mini-skirts, either. I'm not going to point out anything else... (Mana yelled at Saimun! That's a major no-no! You don't yell at anyone of higher rank than you!) AAAAUGH! I'm starting the third chapter now!

Most of the things Damais references in respects to his native land are made up, seeing as how I couldn't find any actual... well, to call them "facts" would be misleading... but in either case I couldn't come up with any cultural stuff for Damais, so I had to invent a few. I just used what I already knew from several cultures, so I hope everyone's okay with it...

Oh! I also realized I should note something! This is NOT set in the YGO Egypt Memory arc! This takes place BEFORE all that! This is ACTUALLY supposed to be ancient Egypt! ... Can this author's not GET any longer!

**Heka:** Egyptian word for magic

**akhet:** inundation, the period when the Nile overflowed its banks. Lasted about from June 21 to October 21

**peret:** emergence, the time when the Nile receded, October 21 to February 21

**shemu:** summer, February 21 to June 21 (each season consisted of four months of thirty days, plus five days at the beginning of the year, making a 365-day calendar.)

Brier, Bob, and Hoyt Hobbs. Daily Life of the Ancient  
Egyptians. Conneticut: Greenwood P, 1999.

00000

Damais was amused at his predicament. He thought it was funny that he had been out-done by a girl of about sixteen years of age. In his culture, she was barely legal for marriage, still considered a child, and yet she outsmarted him. In either case, wether the child had been involved or not, he would have come to the palace anyway. She had just sped along his plans. Tine was still an obstacle, seeing as how he had grown somewhat attached to her, and didn't want her to get hurt. He hadn't intended to accumulate any companions, since they typically only presented complicated rescues for him.

Tine seemed different in this aspect. She was capable of taking care of herself, but she was in a foreign land. She was Gaelic, and in Egypt, a long way from her homeland of Ireland. He didn't ask her intentions at being so far from her home, but then again, she hadn't asked anything of him.

Other than asking for food.

While Damais was tickled pink over the events of the preceeding night, his recent companion was less than pleased. She took it as an insult that she had been caught by a girl two years younger than her. When _she_ was sixteen, she was far better off than this scruffy girl that aided in her capture. _She _was studying with druids. But then again, the life of a druid hadn't interested her, and she had taken to being a wanderer.

She was even less pleased that she had been overpowered by a priest. Most of them didn't even do any hard labor.

Damais and Tine were led to the throne room, where the Lord of Egypt awaited their arrival. Along the way they were met with the girl that had outsmarted them. Damais gave her a polite and respectful smile, and Tine glared. Their escorts left them to enter the room themselves.

The younger girl kept her head bowed, her hands clenched in front of her. She almost seemed to tremble. Damais walked ahead confidently, a small smile playing across his features. Tine was uncertain as to how she should be behaving. The girl was obviously a native to Egypt, as shown by her dark hair and eyes, as well as her skin. She seemed physically fit. Her clothing told her that much. It was a form-fitting dress, as most Egyptian clothes were. The style looked like what Damais had called a "tunic dress". It was slightly different than the one that Damais had pointed out to her. The girl's dress didn't have any sleeves, and there were high slits on the sides that would presumably allow her to run.

Following the other two, Tine stopped before the two rows of three that were the king's most trusted priests. The girl laid herself down flat on the floor, a custom Tine thought curious. Damais stood tall, one hand on his hip, and met the king eye-for-eye, still with that same smile. Tine bowed at the waist, watching the girl, but not knowing wether to follow Damais' greeting or the girl's. She felt awkward, and she didn't like it.

"Damais," the king greeted her savior. That was all Tine was able to understand, since she didn't speak Egyptian.

Damais smiled as if he and the king were old friends, which was probably true. There seemed to be an ease about her fellow foreigner, as if he had said the things he was saying many times before.

Tine straightened, unsure of herself, and looked at the priests. All six of them seemed to note her strange eyes. She recieved varying degrees of apprehension and caution, but they said nothing. In Damais' presence, they must have decided to overlook her un-Egyptian appearance, since he wasn't Egyptian, either. She suddenly felt foolish for bowing.

"Ankh," the king said. She knew that word. It was the word for the Egyptian sign of eternal life. The king continued, sounding amused.

The girl seemed to be embarrassed by this. She apparently ammended her mistake by bringing her knees beneath her and bowed with her forehead touching the ground. The pharaoh said something more to her, and she stood, adopting her earlier posture with her head bowed and her hands clenched in front of her.

An amused smile tried to pry its way across Tine's face. It took supreme willpower for her to smother it, but even then she had to cover her mouth with both her hands. The priest that held a gold rod did not approve of her behavior, as noted by his tone when he spoke to Damais.

"Tine," Damais said in a stern voice. The girl immediately sobered. Damais was certainly not happy. If Tine thought Ankh's behavior was funny, they were going to have many serious problems as long as she remained oblivious to the intensity of the respect for the Egyptian king. "Think of the king as an Egyptian god."

"Why?" she wondered.

"Because Egyptians see him as such."

A shocked expression spread across the girl's face, and Damais knew the priests and the king would take it that she had realized the extent of her mistake and lack of manners. "Don't look directly at him, don't speak unless given permission, and just hold still. I'll let you know what's gong on." The ice in his eyes conveyed his annoyance at the incident he had had to smooth out.

Tine copied Ankh's posture, her hands clasped in front of her and her head bowed. Her hood hid her face and kept the others - except Damais - from seeing the amused smile on her features. "Egyptians are insane," she muttered, trying not to laugh.

"What did she say?" the king asked, a bemused lilt to his voice.

Damais turned back to face him. "She says she is very sorry for her intrusion, and that she hadn't expected to be in the presence of such greatness like yourself, sir."

The girl muttered something else that Ankh couldn't understand. Damais shot her a look - that she couldn't see - and hissed something to her that she barely heard.

"What now?" Seth demanded.

"My ward says if there is any way she can repay the court, she would be happy to oblige."

"In that case," the king smiled.

Tine decided she didn't really like that smile. The king said something to Ankh, who looked startled and looked frantically to Damais, who was speaking rapidly to the king, who nodded to Ankh, who looked uncertainly at Damais, who argued more to the king, who ignored him and watched Ankh, who resumed her previous position with a quick glance to Tine.

Ankh didn't like doing this. She knew where Tine, the girl with the man named Damais, was standing, though she hadn't looked, but she had to at least glance at her to see the clasps on the cloak. It was a simple cord looped over an elaborately tied knot. Easy enough.

She was confused at the events going on in the courtroom. The priests were watching her intently, Damais was arguing against something the king had said, and Ankh was looking skittish, focusing intently on the ground before her.

Suddenly, the cloak she had been wearing slipped off her shoulders. The clasp had come undone. Her reddish hair was exposed, and Tine was filled with a sudden sense of doom when the king jumped to his feet.

Ankh forced herself to only take ten steps away from where she was standing, and move away from Tine. The king was absolutely livid about her hair color, not that she could blame him. Redheads were badluck, courted disaster, and overall were not good company. The priests were in an uproar, as against the presence of a redheaded person in the presence of the king as the king was. As she was.

"This destruction of Egypt that you speak of, that you saw," the king spoke, reiterating Damais' prophesy, "how can you be sure that this girl is not the harbinger of this chaos? You know what the presence of a person with red hair means, and yet you would deliberately travel with one, and allow her to be brought to the court?"

Damais clenched his teeth, wishing for the millionth time that certain people didn't jump to conclusions on a first glance. It seemed that the only way he could convince the king of his good intentions was...

"I have never been disloyal to you before, sir. I defied my _own_ king to bring you warning of the western attack so that you may deflect it without incident, even though the takeover of Egypt was in the best interest of NeoAtlantis." He sorely wished it hadn't come to this, that he could have bided his time longer so as to save up the mention of his credentials. "I have never brought you ill will, so why would I do so now when I have nothing to benefit from it? There is nothing I can do in this situation that I can get anything from, so why would I wish for the destruction of Egypt?

"I am already banned from the place that was supposed to be my new home, the one that I poured blood, sweat, and tears into creating, yet someone else has taken my throne. There is no greater disgrace that can be done to me. There is no reason for me to betray your trust, so why would I?" Damais ended his passionate speech with a bow of a noble, something that, from the reaction of the priests, was something that was a rare occurrance. The king was shocked into silence.

The king almost growled. Ankh wanted so badly to glance at him, to see his expression. To do so was a crime, though, so she restrained herself. Out of the corner of her eye, though, she did see his fists shaking at his sides.

"Damais." The king seemed to hiss and growl at the same time. "You have proven yourself to me, and this is obviously something you find important." With a resigned sigh that Ankh never thought she would hear from someone of his rank, the king declared that he would make his decree in the following morning, and they were dismissed.

000

Now that she saw her up close, she didn't really look all that harbinger-of-destruction-y. In fact, she looked like a normal girl. Well, with strange hair and eyes of course. Ankh was curious of her and afraid of her and cautious of her all at once, three things that she never thought she would feel all at once.

Damais was a different story. He was a foreigner, for sure, but a foreigner that the king trusted. He looked blind, but he moved with a grace that was contradictory to this.

"What was your name again?" he asked her. Though she had been observing him discreetly, and obviously without his knowledge, she was embarrassed.

"I-I don't really have a name," she admitted. "I'm just called Ankh."

"How old are you, exactly?"

"This is my sixteenth **peret** but I was born in** shemu**," she admitted. She resumed her usual mannerisms, deciding that she could take whatever came with the redhead. Damais chuckled to himself.

"I am amazed that you were able to outsmart me," he announced. "I suppose I could have space-shifted, but I didn't want to leave my companion behind."

"You can space-shift?" Amazing. It was a rare talent, and one that she only vaguely remembered stories about. Damais nodded, and winked.

It was the most outrageous thing that she had ever felt. Damais was in one place, then suddenly in a completely different place, on the other side of her and slightly ahead. Her gaze turned to him automatically, having senced where he was. The redhead took it in stride, but obviously did not track him as quickly as Ankh did. Damais suddenly stopped, causing the girls to do likewise. His gaze was fixed on Ankh.

"You were able to tell where I was?" he asked.

"Eh," Ankh made a bashful sound. "I am... aware. I pretty much know what's happening when it's happening."

"Ahh," Damais nodded. "That is why you are the dominant aura right now."

Ankh said something, trying to deny what Damais had just said. Tine was rather annoyed that _her_ savior was conversing with a young slip of a girl that was far less interesting, and far less powerful than her. After all, it wasn't like Ankh was a remembrancer or could get vague messages from animals or control and summon fire. Damais actually didn't know about that one, but it still wasn't like the Egyptian girl could do it, either.

"What is she saying?" Tine asked disinterestedly.

"She's saying how she is madly in love with me and wants me to take her away on my travels," Damias said casually.

"You dirty liar!" the Gaelic girl exclaimed.

She proceeded to shout something else that Ankh didn't understand. Damais knew the words to be Gaelic profanities, and nodded sagely, asking her to please not use that language around him, thank you.

"What?" Ankh asked.

"She is professing her undying love for me at this _very moment_, and is declaring you her rival in love."

"But I never meant anything like that!" Ankh's frantic, misunderstood glance turned to Tine as she said something more that the foreigner couldn't discern the meeting of.

"She is now declaring her eternal devotion to me and announcing formally how she will fight you to the death if that is what it will take for you to leave me to her."

"Impossible!" Tine bellowed. "You're a lying--"

Damais knew Tine's words to be Gaelic curses, but Ankh, having sensed something, blocked her out for a moment. She frowned, and Damais heard something in his mind. His expression turned carefully blank.

Each word was pronounced carefully, and she talked slowly. "He lies," she said in Greek, the one language Damais had not used recently, and couldn't understand clearly. Tine looked to the Egyptian girl, slightly confused by recognizing the words. "He cannot understand presently. He has told me of your... supposed... love for him, but I am not certain that that is what you truely said."

Tine turned an evil glare to her fellow foreigner. He got the message, waved, and he was gone.

"Space-shifter," Tine huffed. "I hate them."

000

It was complicated, but Ankh managed to explain to Tine that she was aware of everything that was happening around her, and how she could somehow stop her thought process at a point where the words going through her head were in English. She was slow speaking it, and slow listening, but at least she and Tine were able to communicate.

"That is what he did," Ankh concluded, finishing retelling exactly what Damais said to the king after the cloak fell to the ground. The two sat atop the palace, having found a hidden stairway that led to a hidden trap door that led to the roof. The warm wind seemed to blow constantly, though Ankh noted that it had cooled, indicating the **peret** period. They watched the town from their perch, bending the rules, since they were not really allowed to leave the palace.

The foriegn girl was silent for a moment, the wind blowing at her borrowed cloak that was once again clasped at her throat. It wasn't quite so high as last time, and Ankh could see the bronze braided cord that reached almost completely around her neck, leaving her throat open and ending in twin carvings of a raven's head, both facing each other.

She hadn't taken well that Ankh was - what was the word she used? Telekinetic. Judging from her expression, Ankh had guessed that she didn't think highly of her before.

"He really put his neck out for me," Tine said finally. Ankh nodded after a moment, processing the words in her head.

"From the court's reaction," Ankh began slowly, "Damais' attitude was that since he did not hail from Egypt, he did not have to follow some of our customs. He apparently had never bowed to the lord, his doing so meant much."

It took a moment for Tine to swallow something.

"My life is riding on one man's decision," she announced. It sank in as the words left her mouth, and she was suddenly mortally afraid. She could fight and struggle all she wanted, but she was only eightteen, and if the final word was 'no,' she wouldn't stand a chance against the priests that would carry out the execution.

"I cannot bear to think of how this must be to you," Ankh admitted, dangling her legs off the edge of the roof. "The anxiety would kill me before word ever got to me."

Tine studied the younger girl for a moment. She seemed to have an experience that defied her age, as if she had seen many terrors, and forgotten them, yet kept the experience with her. She didn't seem as bad as she had first believed.

For her part, Ankh had already reached her conclusions about the Gaelic young woman. She was a mystery to her, since she was from someplace so far away from her that she couldn't even comprehend it. Though she and her kind - redheads - were seen as bad luck, she didn't radiate the danger that she thought she would. She seemed calm, collected, disinclined to let things go bad. She liked that about her. She was unwilling to start things, but more than ready to end them.

000

Tine lagged behind Damais and Ankh, who were conversing on the advantages and disadvantages of the girl's awareness. Though hidden by Damais' cloak, Tine's hands shook. She laced her fingers together, pressed them against her stomach. Nothing ebbed the tide of her tremors.

She had been unable to sleep the previous night. Thoughts of the method of death that the priests would excersize ran rampant through her head. She dared not speak of it to Damais, lest he think she doubted his influence. She tormented herself in silence. The anxiety, as Ankh said, was likely to kill her if the priests did not. It was not a thought she was particularly fond of.

So wrapped up in her thoughts, she did not realize that Ankh kept glancing at her.

-0-0-0-

_Ankh trembled at the idea of what she was about to do. She stood outside her lord's room, examining the way the door was put into the holes in the ground and in the hole above it. His name was carved into the door, the wood obviously imported, since it was so glossy and red, except for where his name was forever scarred into the wood._

_A few moments passed where she gathered her resolve. With a horrendously shaking hand, she knocked gently on the door, careful not to move it. It was silent on the other side until a voice said, "Enter."_

_Following the command, Ankh pushed the door open, and stared determinedly at the floor, not daring to look around at the room of her lord, the Horus "Eternal Falcon in the Sky." She knew he was just to the right of her, so she turned that way and bowed, getting to her knees and touching her forehead to the ground._

_"Please forgive me of my impertinence, my lord, but I could not bear to see the injustice that could befall an innocent woman," she began, her voice trembling. "The foreigner, Tine, bears no one any ill will. I have spoken with her myself, lord, and she means no one any trouble." By this time she was near tears she was so afraid of what could have been done to her. What she was doing was horribly caddish and discourtious. "If you would please listen to one of your own, one of your loyal followers, you would hear a plea in her favor." Her shaking became more pronounced. "Thank you for your time, my lord."_

_It was silent for a moment, and the king knew she was waiting for permission to stand._

-000-

Everyone_ needed permission to stand. It was all very taxing on his mind. He envied the normal people that had something to do every day, a reason to use their bodies. If he got bored, the most movement he got was a visit to his harem, or hunted. There was no _need_ behind his actions for another life, another person. After a while he tired of the unvaried life._

_"Stand," he said. She did as ordered, keeping her gaze on the ground. "I trust you, Ankh," he announced, sitting on the edge of his bed. He was terribly bored, and he had already reached his decision about the redheaded girl. He decided to break a few traditions. He had already promoted a common girl to a noble's status, so what were a few more status customs? "You may look at me," he said._

_Her reaction was infinitely endearing, and he found himself almost laughing. She hesitantly glanced at his feet, then raised her head enough to glimpse his face for a splitsecond before her face darkened in a blush._

_"I-if I may leave, m-my lord?" she asked. He granted her leave, and he didn't see her again 'til morning._

-0-0-0-

00000

Oh. My. GOD! This chapter was a lot more tedious to write than I thought it would be. So sorry about that. I thought about putting that last scene in the beginning of the next chapter, where it's the pharaoh's 3rd-person POV, but I decided against it. I figure you guys have waited long enough.

No ransom for the next chapter, seeing as how I haven't been really into the mood of writing the past few days. I don't know when the next chapter will come out, since it's been so difficult writing this when I thought this would be a short, easy chapter. But nooooo, it's the longest chapter I've written to date! Arg.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimers: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any related themes. Those rights belong to Kazuki Takahashi and all publishing and liscensing companies. Oh, but only if I had any of the Yamis... (whimsical sigh)

A/N: I decided that because of the language used, Damning Dragons was better off being rated T.

Vocab:

**heka**: Egyptian word for magic

**majick**: the way Tine recognizes **heka**

**magic**: the way Damais recognizes **heka**

**diaha**: Egyptian word for "duel start"

**Ka**: In the book I read, the Ka is described as an astral double of a person and required a place to dwell, which was inside the person's body.

**Ba**: In the YGO manga is the magic force (or what Takahashi depicts more as hit points) is, according to the book referenced in the previous chapter, the soul of a person. The process of going to the underworld included the merging of the Ba and the person's body.

00000

The two foriegners and promoted Egyptian stood before the king once again. Isis, the priestess of the Sennen Tauk, presented Tine with an amulet. After a few words from Damais, she allowed Isis to place it around her neck. Isis proceeded to explain that the amulet had been infused with **heka**, and Tine's ears would hear her native language while the speaker spoke their own language. It worked the same in the opposite direction.

Tine, the redheaded girl, was not at all at ease, as Damais and Ankh were. The priests were their normal selves, except for Seth, who looked like he had even more of a stick up his ass. The idea of foreigners in Egypt had never set well with him. The king knew that Seth was opposed to Damais' presence, and even more so to Tine's, since he was an unbending traditionalist, unlike the king. The king suspected that there was something more to the priest than his egotistical and arrogant attitude, but the king had no desire to find out just what that was.

"Tell me," the king began, resting his elbow on the arm of his throne and resting his cheek on his fist, "can you understand what I am saying?"

Tine looked bewildered. It must have been because the words she was hearing did not match up to the movement of his lips. When she spoke, he discovered the exact same feeling. It was oddly disconcerting. She looked at the ground, remembering that the king was the son of Ra. "I-I... Yes, sir, I understand perfectly." She had taken to Damais' attitude of not bowing, but she had adapted Ankh's behavior of not looking directly at the king.

"I will allow you to judge yourself," the king declared. "Your **Ka** will decide your fate for you."

The girl frowned at the ground, thinking that the word had not translated through the amulet. "My what?" she inquired.

"Your **Ka**," the king repeated, and still the word remained **Ka**. "Your spirit double. If you pass the tests of your **Ka**, you will show us your abilities and I shall decide from that. If not, we shall have to excecute you."

There. He said it. If she didn't pass this, she would die. Tension sang along her shoulders and down her spine, rivaling even Seth's rigidity. "Do you understand?" the king asked. After a moment, when Tine could control her body enough to move without shaking, she nodded, one jerky movement.

"Karim," the king said. The scales in the priest's hands teetered for a moment, settling slowly. Tine shook visibly, not knowing which side of the scale she wanted to be on. She didn't know which side would tell the king that she was evil, and which side would tell him she meant him no harm. Finally they settled, dead even.

"She has a heavy heart, my lord," Karim delivered. "She has been grieving deeply, but it has not affected the good in her. As she stands now, she could go either way with the slightest of reason."

"Good enough not to be evil," the king waved off. Tine exhaled carefully, taking deep calming breaths. "Shada."

Shada stepped closer to her, and Tine was filled with the unbearable urge to run. She looked in the priest's eyes, and saw a cold indifference to him. She tried to move her legs, she really did. She didn't want the man any closer to her. She wouldn't admit it out loud, but she was afraid of him. She found out, though, that she couldn't move.

Panic flashing in her eyes, she glanced automatically at Ankh. The girl had her eyes closed and her head bent, her fingers laced and clenched as if she was concentrating very hard. Tine realized that she was the one keeping her from running away. She looked back at Shada, and he held up his key.

For a sickening moment, she blacked out. When she could see again, Shada calmly lowered his key, and returned to his place, delivering his discovery to his king.

"Her **Ka** is the Blast Magician, my lord," he reported. "It is nothing to be concerned about, but she would certainly make a worthy adversary."

A moment passed, and Tine was sure that everyone could hear her heart thundering. The king regarded her carefully. She could feel his eyes upon her, though she was afraid to look at her doomsayer. What seemed to be a comforting hand placed itself on her shoulder, but Tine knew there was nothing there. It was Ankh. If she didn't calm down, she was liable to pass out, which was apparently not something the other girl wanted.

"I know you have three abilities, just like Ankh and Damais," the king began. Ankh seemed a little surprised at being mentioned first, or being mentioned at all. "Prove your powers to me in the next morning, and we shall see about letting you live."

000

Ankh found herself calmer than the last time she was standing in that spot the previous evening. She had a little more confidence in herself, but still thought her own actions to prove her disrespectful, coming to her lord's rooms when he was trying to settle down. Her hand found the door automatically, knocking firmly but gently and much more boldly than she would have liked.

"Enter," came a voice from within. Pushing the door open, Ankh sensed the king sitting in front of her, reclining on his bed, his arm propped on his headrest. Several scrolls were scattered before him, as if he was studying. "Ankh," he said. "I was rather hoping you would come by. Please, don't bother bowing. It's too late in the day for any of that." Ankh caught herself just as he finished speaking, and stayed upright, glancing at him hesitantly.

"Please forgive my rudeness once again, my lord, but I would like to thank you properly for giving Tine a chance," she said, finding her voice a lot stronger than it had been last time she spoke with him. "If there is anything that I can do to repay you, please tell me."

Whatever possessed her lord to say what came next would forever be beyond the girl's grasp. "Just be my friend," he delivered. Ankh was shocked, and was so twice over, again at herself for looking directly at the king. "Friends" seemed like such a foreign concept to her, not being able to remember having any. He just sat there, completely relaxed, knowing she could not refuse him. There was an amused glint in his eyes. Something told her that he liked breaking traditions.

She could only imagine what Seth, or any of the priests for that matter, would do if they found out.

_'Friends with a god,'_ Ankh said to herself disbelievingly. _'Can I do that?'_

000

Tine found Damais' room easily enough, having been there before. Damais was sitting comfortably on his bed, while she paced the room frantically.

"Would you calm down?" Damais sighed, annoyed with her behavior. "You're fine. You passed the tests of your **Ka**. All the king wants is to know what you can do."

"But what if he decides I'm a threat after all?" Tine chewed at her nails, a habit she thought she had broken. "Being able to sense the strong emotions and thoughts of animals and being a remembrancer I think would be able to be overlooked. I can't do anything _about_ those abilities. I can't control them. But being a _pyrokinetic_? How could he not think of me as a threat!"

Damais laid flat on his back, crossing his arms over his chest and staring at the ceiling. "Do you think he was immediately alright with my being able to space-shift?" he asked. "He can't hold me in one place. If I decide to betray him, he can bind me in chains, post guards everywhere, and have swords trained on me, and I can still escape. If he decides to ambush me, I can be gone before anyone he sends after me can draw blood."

"But you helped him," she shook her head. "He trusted you because you gave him information."

"He was apprehensive about trusting that information, too," came the reply. Tine continued to pace the room, making a circuit from the bed, the door, the wall, and back again. "The king is a very trusting individual." Damais smiled to himself. "That will eventually be his downfall."

"Downfall," echoed Tine softly. She stopped pacing, and sat next to her rescuer. "You said, on the first day we were here, that you saw Egypt's downfall in a vision, right?"

"I said that."

"What caused it?"

"That is what I didn't see," Damais explained, sitting up. "My actual _prophecies_ I can't control seeing. I can purposely see a few minutes ahead. Sometimes if I concentrate hard enough, I can see what will happen in an hour or two. Prophecies are hard to see. They're blurry and muffled and all you get is a vague impression. And that's when you're not distracted. You can't tell wether the vision will come true if something changes or if everything stays the same."

He stood, stretched, and stayed standing, looking at Tine. "I have made it a point to warn people about upcoming events, so they can be prepared. I have _always_ reported _everything_ to the Egyptian king." Damais crossed the room and leaned against the wall, looking out the small high windows at the stars.

"Why?" Tine wondered aloud. "What loyalties do you have to him? Aren't you from the first Atlantis?"

After the words left her mouth, she wished she could take them back. Damais sank down to a sitting position, his arms straight and resting on his knees. He hung his head. His moment of weakness was brief. In the time it took Tine to take two breaths, he was sitting up normal again, his arms still on his knees, but casually this time.

With a sigh, Damais began, "He saved me, in much the same way I saved you." He rested his cheek against his fist, regarding her carefully. "I was about... I was a few years younger than you... probably even younger than Ankh. Fifteen years old, maybe." He let go of that matter with a shrug. "Anyway, _I_ was supposed to be the king of Atlantis. _I_ was next in line. When I was perhaps twelve years of age, I went somewhere far away from Atlantis to learn to control my space-shifting."

He smiled at a memory. "I once woke up in a friend's garden because I space-shifted in my sleep. I gave my mother quite a scare." He shook himself from the thought. "Anyway, I was gone when the real Atlantis sank into the ocean. I'm sure you were old enough to remember _that_." After Tine nodded, he continued. "I was so distraught, I returned from the Aztec city to the Atlantian encampment." His expression turned grave. "Half our continent," he said. "_Half_. That's how many of my people were left. I didn't know how it happened, since I wasn't there, but everyone had been convinced that, had I been there, I could have prevented it."

Taking a deep breath, he continued. "I thought it was a dream at the time; just a nightmare. Now I know that that was my first prophecy. I saw Atlantis sink in my dreams. It really happened, exactly as I dreamed it would. If I had been home, I could have evacuated more people. I swore then that I wouldn't let that happen again. I swore to warn everyone I could, if I could. I rebuilt Atlantis. I used a power I no longer have. It hurt - a lot - to use it. I brought Atlantis back, rebuilt the damaged structures, reconstructed our temples. The culture was all but lost. It took me a good two years to reserruct it, and when I was fifteen it was done."

A shudder ran down Tine's spine. He was only fifteen when he did it. Just fifteen. In her culture, he was barely old enough to train under a druid.

"We reoccupied the new Atlantis. I called it NeoAtlantis. I was to take the throne, as I was born to do. I had fully accepted that I would live my life for my people. That I would govern them, and it was only me that could lead them down the right path in order to prosper once again after the devastating sinking of Atlantis." His expression turned bitter, and he glared at the ground. "The advisor to my father led my people while I built NeoAtlantis. His son was my age, soft, undiciplined, and corruptable. I hated him for his indecision. Maneron, once my father's advisor, turned on me. He said I was not of legal age to lead yet. That I was still too young. Too weak and that I would not be able to properly lead NeoAtlantis.

"I was formally stripped of my title, privelages, and my counsil was disbanded. Maneron told everyone that I lied about my abilities, that I couldn't see into the future, that I couldn't space-shift." A deep hate shone through Damais' eyes. It scared her. In the short time that she'd known him, he had seemed so untouchable, so carefree. She never would have guessed that he hurt this much. "He betrayed me, and betrayed my people. I could have forgiven him for betraying me alone, but because of his power-hungry ways, he cost my people their chance. It was because of a stone that descended to Atlantis while I was gone that he was like that. It was because of that stone that Atlantis sank, which I wouldn't find out for many years to come. The stone didn't influence anyone but Maneron then. Maneron jealously guarded the stone, believing that it gave him power. He cast me out of my own home."

His intense gaze turned to her, his face carefully neutral. Behind his eyes was an unfathomable pain. "Can you possibly imagine what it's like to be _forced_ out of the place you built, to be betrayed by your own people? Chased out like a monster, falsely accused? For _no reason_ but someone's _greed_?" He turned away to glare at the ground again. "I was banished. Maneron's son took the throne in my place." An ironic sneer worked its way onto Damais' lips. "He was an entire three days older than me. He turned sixteen, and took the throne while I was chased out. If my people hadn't been turned against me, in another three days, _I_ would have done it.

"I fled to Egypt," he admitted. "They chased me all the way to Egypt. I came to Thebes. The king was on the balcony, and shouted for his guards to apprehend those that caused me to flee without pause. He was absolutely outraged. I told him what happened, that I was the true heir to the Atlantian throne. He brought me in immediately, and sent a messenger to NeoAtlantis telling Maneron and his son that I was under his formal protection. He was only a prince then, much younger than me. He is seventeen years old now, he was ten years old when he took me in. He was and always has been very mature for his age. Something has always told me that, if he had been in my position, even at ten years of age, he would have kept control. He just has a dominating aura about him. He could have done it.

"It's because he defended me that I initially felt endebted to him. He saved my life. I found myself drawn to him, as if inexplicably knowing that he would always lead me in the right direction. It's strange. I get the same sense from Seth, though in a different way. Both of them are leaders in every sense of the word, but I owe nothing to Seth. I decided that I would protect the king from anything I could, since he had done so for me." He looked at her again, calm this time. "I was once captured by pirates in the Indian Sea. He sent his armada out to rescue me. _Half of his naval fleet_. He made a formal decree that I was under his protection. He was sixteen, hardly legal in my culture, and he had rescued a twenty-year-old man that wasn't even his kin. I can't do enough to repay him. He puts up with my attitude regarding Egyptian customs. He doesn't expect me to treat him like a god, like the son of Ra. He never has, since I never knew I was supposed to act that way. I just can't do enough for him to justify, in my mind, his saving me."

"Then we'll stay here and help defend Egypt," Tine declared. Damais looked at her. "If that's the way you feel about him, then let's do it," she nodded. "I don't know how I'll be able to help, but you saved me, and now I have to repay _you_, much the same way you feel you have to repay this king." She smiled, a little embarrassed. "You didn't have to do it, you know. You could have just continued on your way."

She looked at her feet. "I know I can be annoying," she insited hesitantly. "And I know I can be hard to get along with sometimes. But still, you're still here with me, and you haven't sent me away. I don't know anyone else like you, Damais. I mean, almost all of my clan is gone. The only ones left are the ones that were closest to me. They mean a lot to me, but somehow... I don't think they would have done what you did without knowing me." She struggled for the right words. "I just... it... something clicks when I'm around you, y'know? Like... we just get along without thinking about it."

It was a situation Damais couldn't help but ruining with an amused grin. "Are you about to profess your undying love?" he teased. Tine shot him a glare. "My, my, even _I_ never would have been able to see _this_ coming!" He laughed as he continued. "Yes, we get along, but, my dear girl, I'm afraid you're not my type!"

Tine growled at him, and threw a blanket at him. She proceeded to hold it down over him until he space-shifted back over to the bed, and laughed at her. With an imitation of an indignant huff, she declared she was going back to her room to sleep, her anxiety quite forgotten. Damais smiled as she left. That was just what he had been going for.

000

Tine scared the priests witless with her demonstration of her pyrokinetic abilities. Seth, predictably, was especially on edge. The king took it in stride, but Ankh noticed that there was a slight fear behind his eyes when he asked her not to use that ability if she could help it. Tine agreed, grateful that she was not being executed for being a threat. Her ability to sense the strong thoughts and emotions from animals was easy enough to explain, but the king took some convincing on her remembrancer abilities.

She was handed Isis' cloak, and made to declare where the priestess got it from. She turned the cloth over in her hands a few times, looking at it intensely.

"From a boy named Marik," Tine verbalized. "At her thirteenth birthday, in autumn. He made it himself."

The king glanced at Isis to see if this was true. Isis looked just to the side of his face, and nodded, retrieving her cloak.

After that, Damais, Tine, and Ankh stayed around to watch the priests practice dueling. A rallying cry of "**Diaha**," and the session was underway.

"I've been meaning to ask you," Damais said to Ankh, "did you have anything to do with the king's decision about Tine's trial?" Tine listened quietly, watching the duel. The language amulet still hung around her neck.

"What makes you think that?" Ankh wanted to know.

Damais shrugged. "Before you came along, the king was content to just make a decision and call it good, not be bothered by **Ka** trials for someone with red hair. Did you talk to him in private?"

"No, I didn't," Ankh replied easily. Tine believed her, but Damais called her a liar. "How am I a liar?" she wanted to know, looking indignant. "It is forbidden for a commoner to speak with the king alone!"

"But you weren't a commoner. You were promoted to a noble's rank. And you're just lying."

"How can you be so sure she's lying?" Tine inquired.

"Because I can tell when people are lying and telling half-truths," Damais reported. "_That_, my dear girls, is my third ability. It is pointless to ly around me."

000

_It was a battlefield. An odd pair of eyes of blue and gold laughed at her from the other side of the field, but she was being pulled away. A woman stood in the background, the wind blowing her long blond hair and blue robes. Two people, one a girl and one a boy, as well as three creatures, were running toward her. The odd eyes came closer, and the creatures tore at them, meeting the attack with thier own._

_The girl defended the boy she ran with, determined not to let any harm befall her wounded comrade. The boy was left alone as the woman locked in battle with a monster._

_"Rabiah," she could hear him calling. She was filled with an unbearable urge to run to him. She ran as hard as she could, as fast as she could, but she didn't seem to get anywhere. The boy, a soldier, came closer, as did the woman. She could now see that the woman was a valkyrie._

_Something snatched at her, like cruel talons. She looked down at herself, finding herself in green clothing, green gloves, green cloth around her calves, around her shoulders, and forming a kilt around her hips as well as covering her breasts. As the talons secured around her waist lifted her off the ground, she could see her purple hair trailing behind her._

_This was not right. She had to get to the soldier. She had to help him._

_She let her power burst forth, creating circles of light like ribbons that pulsed away from her. The talons released her, and she fell to the ground. The soldier was there below her, his arms outstretched to catch her. The valkyrie held off their enemies, her pinkish hair whipping around her, her helmet with wings falling to the ground as she jammed her staff into the gut of an attacking creature._

_She fell toward them, and she was close enough to see under the soldier's helmet, to see sparkling blue eyes beneath the bronze metal. His spear lay at his feet. She landed in front of him, and he caught her into an embrace, whispering in her ear, "Rabiah - "_

Ankh rolled off the bed, landing with a hard bump that woke her from her dreams.

Had she been dreaming that she was someone else? Who was Rabiah?

Was _she_ Rabiah?

Had those been... **Ka** of people she knew?

Why couldn't she remember!

00000

Well, THAT didn't take as long as I had expected. Once I sat down and started writing, it just came out.

THERE ARE NO "PAIRINGS" IN THIS FIC! Not even OC/OC pairings. CERTAINLY not OC/canon character pairings! I don't know if I'll keep the "no OC/OC" thing in the other two fics that will come after this one (this is, after all, a trilogy) but for now, NO PAIRINGS! I'm saying this because someone might think that Tine "likes" Damais.

This is not true.

I mean, sure she likes him, but the relationship I was trying to get through was that she liked him as an older brother. The pharaoh's request of Ankh to be his friend was just that. Just be his friend. Nothing more. Nothing else will come out of that.

Now that I finally know what kind of **Ka** my characters have, things should go a little more smoothly for me...

**K-chan**: Betcha never thought I could do it THIS way, ne?

**Everyone's Anti-Valentine**: 10 of 10? Seriously? Thanks!

To those of you that didn't review... (pulls out paper fan) BASH BASH BASH!


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimers: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, though I have several pieces of merchendise to my name.

**Props to Shi-chan, who came up with the second and third forms of remembrancy for this fic.**

A/N: It is my understanding that the ancient capitol of Egypt was not Cairo, as it is today near where the Nile splits and flows into the Medditeranian Sea, but it was Thebes, across the nile from modern Luxor in lower central Egypt. Of course, this was after Egypt was united. I don't know wether Egypt was still divided north-and-south or not when Yuugi was pharaoh, so I'm making the assumption that it was united, which will just make things a bit easier for me.

Vocabulary:

**heka**: Egyptian word for magic

**majick**: the way Tine recognizes **heka**

**magic**: the way Damais recognizes **heka**

**diaha**: Egyptian word for "duel start"

**Ka**: astral double; requires a place to dwell

**Ba**: the soul, or in YGO the HP

**akhet**: June 21 to Oct. 21, Nile overflows

**peret**: Oct. 21 to Feb. 21, Nile recedes

**shemu**: Feb. 21 to June 21, summer/spring (calendars add 5 days to the beginning of the year)

Brier, Bob, and Hoyt Hobbs. Daily Life of the Ancient  
Egyptians. Conneticut: Greenwood P, 1999.

00000

Four days after the Egyptian king's announcement, and four days after she received an amulet infused with **majick**, Tine was dancing about in the halls of the palace, humming a gleeful tune. She was absolutely giddy, beside herself with joy. There were not words enough to convey just how happy she had been for four days, and how she could just burst now that the day had finally come. Her happiness was at its fullest. If anything else happened in her favor, she would implode, she was sure of it.

While she skipped and frolicked, she was completely unaware of Ankh's coming. The girl watched her for a while, wondering obviously at her curious behavior. By then Tine was aware of her presence, and twirled over to her, taking her hands and spinning wildly with her. Ankh tried desperately to stay on her feet after Tine released her, but she was spared the effort when Tine caught her up and spun her again. When she was released again, and once she had her dizziness under control, Ankh found her voice.

"What in the name of Ra has you so fired up?" she asked.

Continuing to spin a web of her delight with her dance - which was certainly contagious, if the smile tugging at Ankh's lips was any indication - she giggled in a singsong voice, "Well for one, I'm not going to die any time soon!"

Almost laughing at Tine's suddenly brightened outlook on a dreary subject, Ankh inquired further, "And for two?"

Not bothering to hold back her laughter at Ankh's joke, she continued, "For two and three, I've made a friend, and it's my birthday!" In her language, it was an amusing rhyme. It made her laugh more.

"You're nineteen now?"

"No, eighteen!"

Ankh looked utterly bewildered. "But Damais said you were eighteen."

"No-no!" Tine giggled. "I was too close to eighteen to bother correcting his assump-tion," she separated the word, making it lyrical in her language. "He never asked, so I never told! I am eighteen today!"

"That would make you an archer," Ankh mused aloud. Tine stood in one place and looked at her with a curious glee in her eyes, twisting at her waist and swinging her arms around her. She wanted further information. "I remember someone telling me that depending what stars a person is born under, that person has certain personality traits. The archer is one of the **peret** constellations."

The older girl stilled, looking at her friend with wide eyes. "So you've remembered something?"

Trying to hide a modest blush, Ankh said, "Only just now. I haven't remembered that much." At least, that was what she tried to say. All she got to was "remembered" when Tine caught her up again.

"Happy day, happy day!" she squealed. "Ankh has remembered, Ankh has remembered!" She proceeded to spin her around, and Ankh couldn't help but laugh at her enthusiastic... enthusiasticness.

000

Later that day, as the sun was setting, it was a far less happier scene. While the girls celebrated Tine's good fortune and anniversary of her birth, Damais sat with the king in one of the king's private chambers, discussing ways to deter Atlantian soldiers.

It was the king who thought of putting their defensive lines in waves. It was Damais that suggested that the fifth wave would be larger than the previous four, so as to be sure of Atlantian troop annihilation. The king quickly consented, all too eager to keep Atlantians away from Thebes. He himself, the great Son of Ra, who normally commanded from the front lines of battle, was deeply scalded that he would not be able to uphold the tradition. While he was wont to breaking traditions, not being able to personally lead his people and let them know they had his support was an abberation that defied all common logic. The king led the troops, that was it. Until now.

Damais had pointed out that the king was the only one that could summon the gods. If the Atlantians broke through their fifth wave, they would be defenseless. Damais suggested that the king and his priests defend the city from the palace, keeping guard, and when the time was right, leaving to provide a last stand against the enemy. Although he had a point, the king was not unhesitant about allowing this scandal to take place. Egypt was a place steeped in tradition, and even if her king delighted in breaking a few traditions, no tradition he had ever ignored, broken, or disavowed, even put together, had ever amounted to being even half the severity of this broken tradition.

The king thought Damais was being insensitive when he claimed that Maat would not matter in the ranks of command, but rather would be prominent on the battlefield itself. The king twitched at the unsurreptitious mention of the goddess of divine order. How would a non-Egyptian person possibly know what would soothe the gods? Giving Damais the benefit of the doubt, and most likely making him think that his comment regarding Maat was what persuaded him, the king consented, however reluctantly.

"The Atlantians will send in lines of one-hundred. They will come in more than one line at a time, most likely two from the front and two moving in on the side," Damais announced.

"Then we will compose the defense of five units," returned the king. Damais was well aware that each Egyptian unit of soldiers consisted of one-hundred people.

"Do you have enough people to make these numbers?" Damais asked, looking over a map.

"Of course," the king scoffed. "Do you really think I would suggest using so many and not be able to supply the demand?"

With a shrug, Damais continued studying the map.

000

_The battlefield was black, dark clouds looming overhead. At a sound from behind her, she turned around, finding a small number of people, kneeling and obviously troubled. She didn't have to really check anyone to know their enemies were dead. As she approached the living people, she observed that the figure they were kneeling by was sick, injured internally from overusing her magic. Her light blue robes stained with blood, her headdress laying at her side by the valkyrie's helmet. Her long blond hair was matted with sweat and dirt, as if she had been actually fighting as well as providing defensive and healing magic. The valkyrie had removed her dark purple-and-yellow shoulder armor._

_With wide, teary green eyes, the pink-haired valkyrie held the blond woman's hand, watching the magician expectantly._

'Am I a magician?'

_"Rabiah," the soldier said at her shoulder, his hand touching her arm. He was still fully garbed in his bronze armor, though his spear lay on the ground. His sparkling blue eyes silently pleaded with her. "You can heal her."_

_Internally, she frowned, though she knew it did not show outwardly for some reason. She didn't know any healing spells. She didn't know how to heal internal injuries._

_Yet her body moved of its own will, working through the motions of a spell by reflex, as though she knew the ritual by heart. Her father had performed this ritual, taught it to her. He was the clan healer. Fukanya, the blond woman, the present leader, could not heal herself. She was powerful, yes, but she was also vulnerable, and very precious to them all._

_Fukanya stood, though how Rabiah knew her name, she couldn't even guess._

_She heard soemthign behind her again. She turned to see a magicain garbed in black and red, holding a battle-ax that was curved like a scythe on one side. The magician cried out for her to return. After a quick glance to her clan to make sure she wasn't imagining things, she turned back to find that a young boy with orangish hair and clothed in a brown tunic and tan breeches had joined her._

_Curious, Rabiah took a few steps closer. The boy and magician were joined by three looming figures that she instantly knew were gods. Her clan was shouting for her to return. She stood in the battlefield, halfway between her clan and the other mysterious group._

_She was curious about these new people, yet she felt loyal to her clan. She didn't know which side to go to. She owed so much to both sides._

_Her hesitation cost her, and she felt something strike her eye. She saw no more._

Ankh sprang up in bed, shaking. She had no idea what was going on. That couldn't have been her own dream.

Suddenly Damais entered her room, his expression stony and unreadable. "You saw it?" he asked. "The battlefield."

"I-" her voice didn't want to make any further sounds. She contemplated lying, but then remembered that he would be able to tell. "I... yes, I did."

"That was not a dream," he delivered harshly, clipping her sentence short. "It was a prophecy. I don't like that you were aware of it."

Aware. It was one of Damais' prophecies? She could be aware of what was going on _inside his head?_ The thought scared her.

"What exactly did you see?" he demanded. He hadn't moved away from the door.

"I saw... creatures," she hesitated, not liking this cold, you-will-tell-me-NOW-or-else Damais. "Almost... almost as if they were... **Ka**."

Again he started just as the words left her mouth. "Then your mind translated it into something it could understand," he said. "You must have known them." Ankh protested the accusation, but Damais brushed it aside, saying that it mattered not. "You saw what you understood, and I saw what I understood. I saw the actual people, since it was my prophecy." His gaze narrowed. "Now, from this moment on, would you _kindly_ stay out of my head?"

He was gone before Ankh could tell him that she hadn't meant to be in his head.

000

The morning after Damais' uncharacteristic coldness, he acted as if nothing had happened, as if he hadn't scared Ankh nearly witless. Two days afterward, Ankh was worried. Since then, she had been doing her best to be unaware of Damais, trying to keep her defenses down so as not to make him angry again. She had started immediately after he left on that morning two days ago, but since then, she had been seeing those **Ka** in her mind's eye, even during the day.

It was starting to scare her, even more than Damais, knowing that her awareness had sent up a reflexive barrier against these visions that put her in a daze. It just so happened that the most recent vision - of the soldier and the others beckoning to her, pleading silently - occured when Tine was with her.

"Are you alright?" Tine asked once Ankh came back to reality.

"I'm fine, I'm fine," she brushed off, though she held her head as it throbbed a few times and died down.

She did not miss the look Tine gave her. It was as if she knew she was lying, she understood why, but still didn't like it. Ankh decided she didn't like Tine's new I-now-you're-hiding-something-from-me-and-I-understand-but-I'm-going-to-badger-the-hell-out-of-you-anyway look. "I may not have Damais' power of knowing when someone's lying," she stared, "but I know you're lying."

"I am not," Ankh said firmly.

"You told me you were fine _way_ too fast," Tine announced smoothly. Her look turned to one of concern at breakneck speeds. "You know you can tell me if something's wrong." Ankh was surprised. Tine sounded hurt.

After a few hearbeats of hesitation, she finally told her, "It's just I - I don't - I can't remember as much as you think I remember. And I've been having these weird... visions, I guess. They only came at night before, when I was sleeping, but now they've... they're coming during the day now, and I don't know what they mean."

There was silence in the space it took for the two girls to enter the gardens, having just eaten their midday meal, courtesy the of the king's catering.

"I _am_ a remembrancer, you know," Tine said finally. "I could look back for you if you want."

"You'd do that for me?" Ankh asked, shocked. Tine smiled and nodded.

"Of course," she chuckled lightly. "We're friends, right?" Ankh nodded, following Tine to her room, where she said she would be able to look back properly.

Once they were there, Tine pulled out a mirror and a small dagger.

"Now," she said, "describe one of these dreams to me."

"Well..." Ankh stammered, uncertain of how to phrase her explanation. "I see the **Ka**, not the people."

"Doesn't matter," Tine shrugged. "I'll be able to see the people, no problem."

Skeptical though she was, Ankh forged ahead, determined to know what the meaning of these visions were. "It's like they're calling to me now... the **Ka**, I mean. But before, we were on a battlefield, and I didn't know what I was doing. I was snatched up by something with talons, and this... soldier and a valkyrie were coming after me, trying to save me, I guess." Shifting uncomfortably, she continued. "I did something with my powers, and I was released. I fell toward the soldeir, who was going to catch me, but I woke up before I landed."

Tine had pricked her finger, and was holding the mirror before her, dripping blood onto the surface. "That's all I need," she delivered, her eyes drooping and her voice lowering with each word. "Now I need you to be very... very... quiet."

When the seventh drop of blood landed on the mirror, the blood spread out of its own occord, creating a thin layer of red. That was all Ankh saw. Tine saw the mirror go black. Focusing on the story Ankh had told her, she searched.

The sun rose in the mirror, then it set, then came the rise and fall of the moon, followed by the sun again. Again the moon, the sun, the moon, the sun, and the moon agian, and again and again until they were nothing but a blur. Finally they slowed, Tine having found what she was looking for, or so she hoped.

She saw the same battlefield that Ankh had told her about, though she had gone into no great detail. She walked around, avoiding the fights, though she knew they would pass right through her. She could not affect the past, and everything would carry on as if she was not there, since she wasn't there when it actually happened. She found Ankh, looking well and human, though covered in blood.

Ankh was pressed back-to-back with a boy about Tine's age, with short black hair that formed wild bangs in front of his eyes. Tine heard Ankh call him Gahiji, and she told him to watch out. Just then, a large bird, a monster of some sort, dive-bombed Ankh. She landed quite a distance away, and Gahiji cried out a name.

"Rabiah!" he yelled.

_'So,'_ Tine said to herself. _'Ankh's real name is Rabiah?'_

The scene continued before her, Ankh, as Tine knew her, standing, dazed, looking around. Had that been when she lost her memory? No, it couldn't have been, because when she was snatched up by that same bird, when she was released and fell toward Gahiji, Tine heard her say his name before she fell to her knees. She had injured her ankle.

Was this a clan war? There were **Ka** all over the place, but there were many people, too. As many people as there were **Ka**. The season seemed to be sometime around the beginning of the Egyptian **akhet**, though she couldn't be sure.

A young woman with short, chin-length black hair loosed an arrow at the bird, the last of their enemies on the field. The woman, accompanied by another woman garbed in red armor and sporting pinkish hair and a winged helmet, ran to Ankh and Gahiji. A burly man approached them as well. He took one look at Ankh's ankle and hoisted her over his shoulder. Ankh squwaked indignantly, but the others laughed. Apparently Ankh was the youngest in the clan, and was so treated as such.

With a huff when the man did not release her, Ankh folded her arms and rested her chin in her hand, supremely ruffled. Though she was covered with dirt and blood - as the others were - she was not disturbed by it in the least, and seemed comfortable. Tine was certain it had been a clan war, and that Ankh had become used to it.

Suddenly she was ripped from the battlefield, the scenery blurring and spinning into one black mess, which grew smaller and became the surface of the mirror again, which thinned and became blood that dripped on the ground.

Damais had wrenched her arm, dragging her out of the mirror. "Just what were you doing?" he demanded. The unguarded anger in his eyes startled her. "You never told me you could do that kind of remembrancy!"

"Y-you never asked," Tine studdered. "I was doing something for Ankh!"

"How much remembrancy can you do?" he asked. When she didn't reply fast enough, he shook her by her arm, demanding again, "How much?"

"A-all of it!" Tine found herself shouting. "All three kinds! I'm sorry! I didn't know it was such a-"

She was cut off by Damais abruptly dragging her into the throne room, where the king and his priests were preparing to leave.

"Damais?" the king asked, noting quickly the Atlantian's angry glower. Tine winced as Damais' fingers dug into her upper arm. She still held her mirror in her hand. A second later, Ankh appeared at her side, though she said nothing.

"Tine can do remembrancy," he growled.

"We know," the king replied in a bored, tired tone. "She showed us by telling us how Isis-"

"No," Damais interrupted. "Forgive me, sir, but she can do _all three_ kinds of remembrancy." He snatched the mirror away from Tine, and held it up so the king and the priests could see. The blood ran down the mirror, dripping onto Damais' fingers. "She was using _this_ to do remembrancy. _And_ she has just told me she can do the third remembrancy ritual."

00000

At the end of this chapter, it would be somewhere along the lines of November 14th. Dija notice it was still dusk when the chapter ended? No night-time scene and ending at dawn. Naw, didn't think anyone would notice.

Anyway, I _really_ liked writing that opening scene, especially the "happy day" part. Nyah. I kinda liked the drastic switch between that and then Damais and Phary (my nickname for the pharaoh, pronounced like "fairy" and stemming from my reading too fast while reading out loud) planning their warfare stuff. I think I exaggerated the whole Phary-leading-the-troops thing, but oh well.

I have also realized that, now that I have changed DD to T, things have mellowed out plot-wise. (Grr.) That's precisely why I described Tine's "look" the way I did. Expect to see that pop up a lot.

Damais is being an ass lately, ne? Trust me, it'll get better. (Nyah!)

On a final note, the Harry Potter books (6! Nyeah!) kept me straight on the 2nd form of remembrancy. You can get a better image of what I was going for by reading any of the books where Harry encounters Dumbledore's "pensive" thingy. The swirly-memory-player-doodad. Yeah.

Thanks to:

**Everyone's Anti-Valentine** (the only one that has reviewed ch4.)

Shi-chan, I KNOW YOU'RE READING THIS! To those that haven't reviewed... Oooh, just you wait 'til I get my paper fan repaired. (I sorta gave my sister the beat-down with it yesterday morning...)


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimers: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!

A/N: I'm so gonna die. My life has consisted of cleaning my room, reading Harry Potter 6, and writing my fanfictions, as well as family crisis after family crisis. Someone PLEASE shoot me! No, I take it back! Nooooo! Anyway, I just finished the 6th Harry Potter book. (Shi-chan, I think I know what that spoiler was now...) I didn't like the ending. Noooo way. There were certain parts I liked (and when you read it, I think you'll know what part I'm talking about if you note my style in Three Way Mirror for the Trash Talk chapter) but I REALLY DID NOT LIKE THE ENDING!

Props:

Shi-chan came up with the 2nd level (previous chapter) of remembrancy, as well as the form of remembrancy you will see in this chapter. L2 was influenced by a book series that Shi-chan reads, as well as Dumbledore's Pensieve-thing in Harry Potter. (I just finished the book and I can't even remember how to spell it.) The third form (which appears in this chapter) was influenced by Hatori's memory-erasing from Fruits Basket.

Vocabulary:

**heka**: Egyptian word for magic

**majick**: the way Tine recognizes **heka**

**magic**: the way Damais recognizes **heka**

**diaha**: Egyptian word for "duel start"

**Ka**: astral double; requires a place to dwell

**Ba**: the soul, or in YGO the HP

**akhet**: June 21 to Oct. 21, Nile overflows

**peret**: Oct. 21 to Feb. 21, Nile recedes

**shemu**: Feb. 21 to June 21, summer/spring (calendars add 5 days to the beginning of the year)

Brier, Bob, and Hoyt Hobbs. Daily Life of the Ancient Egyptians. Conneticut: Greenwood P, 1999.

00000

The floor, under most circumstances, did not mind being walked on. Sometimes, it didn't even mind being trotted on. It didn't mind the occasional pacing, either. But Tine's behavior was seriously starting to wear the floor's patience thin. With her continual pacing, pacing, pacing; back and forth, back and forth... she was starting to wear it out, which it most certainly did not like.

Okay, so she was in a locked room with guards posted outside the door. (And let's face it, they weren't light. The floor didn't like them.) So she was going to be on trial in a few hours' time. _So_ she was caught doing a forbidden **heka** that she didn't know was forbidden... The floor decided it could forgive her frantic pacing.

But did Ankh have to _stomp_?

The floor didn't recall what it had done to make the girl so irrate! Alright, so her friend was getting in trouble for helping her. So she was worried about her friend. So her friend could possibly be sentenced to death in a few hours' time. But that was her friend's problem!

Damais, in contrast to the girls, did not stomp, and did not pace. He stood in one place, hardly inside his doorway, glaring venomously at the ground. The floor was sympathetic. Damais wasn't _really_ mad at Tine. He was mad at himself for not bothering to secure such mportant information. He hadn't asked about her remembrancy other than if she could do it (and even then the floor was skeptical). He felt duped, this the man that could tell when people weren't being completely honest. The floor felt for him.

But _honestly_, did she have to _stomp_?

000

Two guards escorted Tine into the throne room, each one holding Tine by her upper arm and toting swords. The did not look very pleased. Neither, Tine noted, did the king.

She hadn't known that they would think it was important what kind of remembrancy she could do. After all, they had only asked her to prove one kind. She decided it would be unwise of her to point this out, and so said nothing when the king accused her of hiding her powers from them. Remembering the Egyptian custom, she averted her gaze from him, instead studying the floor.

Hello, Floor. She thought the floor would be glad to know she was thinking about it. She lifted her feet up so that she was held up by the two guards, relieving the floor of some pressure. Goodness knows that _she_ would have liked some pressure to up and leave her alone for a while.

"I will give you this one chance, and this one chance _only_," the king began. "You will show us _all_ of your powers, and _then_ we will decide wether or not you stay. Understood?"

"Yes, sire," Tine replied in monotone.

"You will tell us how Seth became a priest, then, using your little mirror," the king sneered. He was obviously not happy that information had been withheld from him. Seth's jaw clenched visibly, and his lips pursed, but he said nothing. A slave girl approached Tine with a mirror and a small blade that would do nothing more than create a small piercing wound. So they had seen that she used blood to perform this form of remembrancy.

Having been released by the guards (hello again, Floor) who still stood close, Tine pricked her finger, repeating her performance of dripping it onto the mirror. It spread out, turned black, and the sun and moon were turning even as the blackness faded away to Tine's eyes. After a moment, they stopped.

Tine found herself in a small house with a dilapidated wall. A woman lay in the corner of the room, her face horridly pale, her eyes rolled back. She looked, Tine realized with a start, like she had been drowned.

Finding Seth wasn't a hard thing to do, since he came racing right through her when she turned around. She quickly followed him out the door, through the town, and up the temple stairs, where he proceeded to beg the head priest to train him.

She came out of the memory with considerably more ease, this time the scene blurring softly as she was delivered back into her own mind and the blackness became the mirror. Blinking a few times, she said, "His mother was an invalid."

"That does not explain why he became a priest," the king said impatiently.

"He ran away," Tine explained. "He had to take care of her, or so I would assume, from what I saw."

"And what _did_ you see?"

"She looked like she had been drowned."

"Is this true, Seth?" the king asked. Seth nodded mutely. The king turned back to Tine. "What is the third form of your remembrancy?"

"I can look directly into the mind of another person, sir," Tine said hesitantly.

There was a very long streach of silence. Nobody really wanted Tine inside their head. The king contemplated having Tine look into Damais' mind, but the very potentailly venomous glare he got from the Atlantian man advised him against it.

The king was so mad at Tine for hiding her powers from him that he wasn't completely thinking straight. "You will look into Ankh's mind," he announced, missing the wide-eyed, betrayed look that plastered itself on Ankh's face. "You will look for a memory of her family."

When Tine didn't immediately follow his directions, he grew irritable.

"Might I remind you that failure to follow my directions will get you killed?" he glared. Tine hesitantly approached Ankh.

The younger girl kept her wide gaze on the king until Tine placed a hand over her eyes.

-0-0-0-

_It is rare that there is a reprieve in the clan wars. Everyone is tired, except for, seemingly, Fukanya, who is leading us. She stops us in an oasis, and notes how tired I am, especially. She sits down, and takes her long black hair out of the braid she normally wears it in. We all know what it means._

_Everyone is happy for the break. Gahiji and Shu, though, are eager to continue their sparring. They lack experience in offensive magic, though they are spectacular at defensive. Fukanya has taught the clan defense, and my father was supposed to teach the clan offense, as well as a few healing spells._

_Unfortunately, my father has moved on. I push the sad thought out of my mind and watch Gahiji and Shu spar while Khepri, Echidna, and Usi relax. I am sure that Khepri is asleep._

_Suddenly, just when Gahiji seemed to be gaining the upper hand, Shu flings out a reflexive defense spell. Gahiji is propelled backward, and lands on his back. He doesn't move. Shu freezes for several heartbeats, realizing what he has done, then rushes to Gahiji._

_I am already there, though I don't remember moving. Gahiji gets hurt often. I go through the ritualistic movements of the healing spell. I know the moves by heart. In the space of two breaths, Gahiji is awake. He rubs his blue eyes as if he had been asleep. Somehow I still don't think he has ever gotten used to the feel of being healed rapidly._

_There is a hand on my shoulder, warm, comforting, and proud. I look up and see Fukanya. We all know our break is over._

-0-0-0-

"Well?" the king demanded impatiently. Ankh found herself on her knees, her hand circling Tine's wrist in a weak gesture. "What did you see?"

"I-I saw..." Tine swallowed past the lump in her throat, banishing it away. "I saw a clan. Seven all together. Three women and four men."

"Is this true?" the king asked. Tine still hadn't removed her hand from Ankh's eyes.

Suddenly Ankh pulled away, spinning around and running away. The king was startled by this, and followed her quickly. The priests were thunderstruck at their king's recklessness. There were several cries of outrage, the loudest of which came from Seth.

"Ankh!" the king shouted. "Ankh, wait!" He managed to catch up to her, grabbing her by her wrist and jerking her to a stop. "What happened? What did - Did Tine do something to you?"

Without warning, the girl spun around, slapping the king across the face with a resounding crack. She wrenched her arm back, tears streaming down her face.

"I didn't remember!" she shouted. "I didn't _remember_, do you understand? I could hardly remember _anything_ before I got here! I can't..." she hesitated a moment, then resumed her yelling. "I can't be friends with someone that doesn't know how to be a friend! A friend wouldn't have done that to me! Tine is my friend, did you know _that_? And you go and treat her like a criminal not once, but _twice_!" With a vigerous shake of her head, she turned and ran away, and left the palace.

000

'_Traitor. Traitor, traitor, traitor!_' her mind hissed at her. She knew it was true. She knew that Ankh didn't consciously remember that much, and yet she had prowled her mind looking for something that her friend had hidden for her own reasons.

Tine leaned her elbows on her knees, hiding her face in her hands. "I shouldn't have done it," she warbled. "I betrayed her, Damais."

"Don't be rediculous," Damais scoffed. "You weren't the one that betrayed her. She cooperated, didn't she? She didn't want you to die."

"But she ran away!" Tine sobbed. "She's angry with me, I just know it! After what I did... Oh, gods, I can't blame her."

"Tine!" Damais said sharply, causing Tine to look up at him. "You were _not_ the one that hurt her! And Ankh will be fine. She's just gone to clear her mind. She'll be back by morning, mark my words."

With a little sniff, Tine asked, "Did you see it?"

Damais couldn't bear to answer her, so instead he turned to look out over the gardens.

000

She was running, _again_. This time, she remembered why, and it wasn't because of a pair of mismatched eyes. It was that idiot that wore the crown that she was running from.

Thinking she had seen someone, she shook her head, sure that she had to be hallucinating.

She was quickly burning out. She fell to the sand, catching herself on her hands and knees. Just before she blacked out, she could have sworn she saw someone again.

00000

I got thrown off after the section of present-tense stuff. I'm sure as hell not doing THAT again... (shakes head) No no no no no.

My room is clean. Finally. Well, my sister still has to clean up HER shit, but my stuff is done. I've been miserable for the past few days, family troubles and whatnot, plus altitude sickness. I have no idea how you get altitude sickness, but mom says it's from being on a plane and breathing in "canned air" or something, then getting back down on the ground and... I have no idea.

Khepri: morning sun

Gahiji: hunter

Fukanya: intelligent

Echidna: mythical monster

Shu: air

Usi: smoke

Rabiah: born in spring

Thanks to:

**K-chan** (I didn't put in Remembrancy 3-2...) and **Everyone's Anti-Valentine** (Yes, you were the only reviewer for ch4).

To those of you that didn't review... well... my fan is still being repaired... so this CROWBAR will have to do the trick! (evil smile)

_Psst... guys... check my bio page for status on my fics._


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimers:I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! And I won't any time soon, either.

A/N: Pepsi, Maruchan instant lunch ramen, sitting in my girlfriend's clothes I borrowed, a computer, and a full outline for this chapter... what more could I want?

And yes, I am a girl and I have a girlfriend, one of my best friends. I am borrowing some of her clothes because I didn't expect to be at her place for so long due to an unforseen crisis at home.

Vocabulary:

**heka**: Egyptian word for magic

**majick**: the way Tine recognizes **heka**

**magic**: the way Damais recognizes **heka**

**diaha**: Egyptian word for "duel start"

**Ka**: astral double; requires a place to dwell

**Ba**: the soul, or in YGO the HP

**akhet**: June 21 to Oct. 21, Nile overflows

**peret**: Oct. 21 to Feb. 21, Nile recedes

**shemu**: Feb. 21 to June 21, summer/spring (calendars add 5 days to the beginning of the year)

Brier, Bob, and Hoyt Hobbs. Daily Life of the Ancient Egyptians. Conneticut: Greenwood P, 1999.

00000

The sun rose over the sand dunes, blanketing the area in a familiar humidity. In the rather large oasis, a girl slept near the water's edge, though not close enough to roll into. The sun warmed her face, causing her to stir. She opened her deep brown eyes, sparkling blue eyes meeting hers before she had even completely woken up.

'_Strange,_' she thought, taking in the sight of the boy. He looked Egyptian enough, given his clothing and the short dark hair that formed wild bangs in front of his eyes. '_But his eyes are blue. How strange._'

She knew that if one priest in particular saw this boy, he wouldn't like him.

000

"Damais!" Tine shrieked, barging into his room. Damais remained calm, though he had only woken up moments before. "She's not here! You said she'd be back today, but she's not!"

How long had he been asleep for? Normally he woke at the crack of dawn, but today... he was sure it was close to the time of no shadows. Tine continued to pace the room, babbling things to herself.

Poor floor. As if Tine hadn't done enough pacing already.

"I'm going to go look for her," Tine declared, coming to a stop. "She's probably in trouble and she couldn't come back." With a resolute nod, tine left just as Damais was pulling on his cloak.

He didn't think it would be any trouble for her, so he let her go, and though nothing of it as he strode down the hall to find the king and continue their discussion on fortifying their defenses.

000

It was only when dusk came that Damais started getting worried. He hadn't even been able to forsee Tine's return that day, nor would she be back by morning by herself. The king apparently noticed his figity, distracted demeanor, and so asked him what was wrong.

"Tine left to look for Ankh," Damais said, examining a map and checking a few numbers. "She hasn't returned yet. I'm starting to wonder if she's in trouble."

Something passed over the king's face, but it was gone before Damais could think anything of it. Something had transpired between him and Ankh the previous day, and every mention of the girl seemed to make him guilty. It was not anything Damais had any patience for at the moment. After he saved Tine and Ankh from whatever trouble they had managed to get themselves into, he would worry about the king.

The king answered his unasked question. "You may go search for them," he delivered, determinedly examining a map. "I do not expect you to return without them."

With a nod, Damais thanked him for his dismissal, and headed straight for the entryway of the palace.

000

Come nightfall, the king was worried, too. Given Damais' abilities of forsight and space-shifting, he hadn't thought it would take that long for him to return. It was well into the night, possibly at midnight, when he really got worried. A cold knot of dread formed in his stomach as he wondered if they were alright.

What had chilled him to the bone, though, was the thought that they could have just abandoned him. He hadn't gotten to apologize to Ankh, and he hadn't gotten to know Tine properly. He knew Damais would return before the Atlantian attack, but without his knowledge of hte Atlantian attack patterns, he didn't know how to further their plans of attack besides readying his soldiers.

He fell into a fitful sleep, waking every few minutes at any sound outside his door, thinking it would be Ankh coming to tell him they were back, or the faint pop of Damais' arrival via space-shifting, or Tine prowling the palace.

00000

Thanks to:

**Everyone's Anti-Valentine**

Grr... C'mon guys, I really don't wanna have to beat you down with a crowbar... (hands the crowbar to Ookami, who was reincarnated into Gahiji)

Ookami: WOO-HOO! CROWBAR!


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, but I still lurve Yuugi. :huggles:

A/N: Sorry this took so long. I was really hurting for plot for this chapter, and then one day I just went, OH! By George, I've got it! Whoever George is... I don't know anyone named George... My sister had a stuffed giraffe named George... And then there's that monkey... Curious George... I never liked him.

OK, I realize that the "Takahashis" had to have bent (coughbrokecough) some rules to make their characters _characters_, but that doesn't mean that it still doesn't bug me. So there.

Vocabulary:

**heka**: Egyptian word for magic

**majick**: the way Tine recognizes **heka**

**magic**: the way Damais recognizes **heka**

**diaha**: Egyptian word for "duel start"

**Ka**: astral double; requires a place to dwell

**Ba**: the soul, or in YGO the HP

**akhet**: June 21 to Oct. 21, Nile overflows

**peret**: Oct. 21 to Feb. 21, Nile recedes

**shemu**: Feb. 21 to June 21, summer/spring (calendars add 5 days to the beginning of the year)

Brier, Bob, and Hoyt Hobbs. Daily Life of the Ancient Egyptians. Conneticut: Greenwood P, 1999.

00000

Being sure to stay hidden in the shadows of the early dawn, a dark figure loomed around the corners of the port, where sea bandits presently rampaged. The figure's head throbbed, and he shook it as if to clear it. He would _not_ get distracted. He had a treasure to steal back from these brigands, and he'd be damned before he let a little headache get in the way.

It got so bad after a few minutes that he was driven to his knees by the throbbing in his head, and he was almost sick because of it. The lies swimming around the pirates were too numerous. These were most definately not the pirates that hailed from the lands he had been to. They had to have been Roman, the brutal race that was quickly dominating the surrounding area. He pushed aside his weariness under the weight of the dogs' lies and half-truths, but his vision was bleary, and it made him sloppy. And then the captain drew near... his knees buckled and his stomach lurched up into his throat as if to throw itself at the man.

There was a girl slung over the captain's soldier, rendered completely unconscious. The staggering man was soon thrust into a similar state of blissful unawareness, where the pirates' ill deeds could not reach him. He went limp, and when he next became aware of himself, he was in the ship, cast in among some other prisoners. He managed to suppress the _weight_ - that was the only word for it - and release himself from his bonds. He briefly felt guilty about leaving the other prisoners, but reminded himself of why he was there. He sorely wished that he could space-shift to the captain's quarters, but the fact that the ship was moving disallowed that. He could have ended up in a wall or outside the ship. Or worse, _inside_ another person.

Before he realized this, he had been too arrogant. He strode confidantly -- and arrogantly, when he looked back at it -- down the halls of the ship, and when he heard footsteps, he space-shifted into another room. The ship bobbed in the water and he didn't exactly land on the ground. He fell down, thankfully behind several stacks of wooden boxes. Waiting there on his hands and knees while the Roman sea-bandits searched for the source of the sound made him realize just how lucky he had been. It was also when he realized that he was then hopelessly lost. It felt like countless hours before the Romans left the room and he was able to sidle his way between the crates and the wall. He spent the next three hours trying to find the stairs, and another two looking for the captain's quarters. He knew the treasure would be there.

He got to the quarters, and found the treasure right where he thought it would be -- on the bed. A girl with red-orange hair lay on her back, her knees hanging off the side with one hand on her stomach and another by her shoulder. Her eyes were closed, as if she were asleep. So far, she looked unharmed. He didn't want to think of what would have happened if he'd taken any longer in getting there. He was lucky that day. _Incredibly_ lucky.

"Hey," he said, urgency flooding his voice. "C'mon, wake up." He shook the girl gently, patting her face while he kneeled beside her on the bed. "Open your eyes," he whispered. "We've gotta get back to Egypt. C'mon, wake up."

The girl's eyes opened with a slow flutter, as if she was incredibly tired. "Damais," she croaked, almost like her throat was swollen. He winced at the sound.

A painfuly clear vision struck him then, rendering him immobile.

-0-0-0-

_Ankh surged into a sitting position on the ground, close to the fire of the camp and covered with the large leaves of an oasis plant. A boy sat opposite from her across the fire, prodding it. His blue eyes looked like a silver liquid in the firelight._

_"Is something wrong?" he asked. His voice was heavy with sleep. He didnt' know about her awareness yet, and she didn't want him to worry._

_"No," she said, shaking her head. "I'm fine."_

_The sun and moon flew by in a blur, and the scene smeared together to reform once again, just on the outside of the city, on the fringes of the desert. Ankh was high in the air, wrapped in some sort of bubble of clear blue that attached to a strange flying contraption that hovered thousands of man-heights off the ground. She pounded her fists against the film of the bubble, trying to break free. It was to no avail. She had to watch Egypt, the only home she'd ever known, burn to the ground in some places and crumble in others. Before her very eyes, Egypt turned into the very sand it was built on, never to be rebuilt._

-0-0-0-

The door opened, and the captain stepped in. Damais had barely realized that Ankh was still vaguely aware of what was happening around him and Tine, and their close proximity heightened that awareness. He barely managed to hide himself and Tine in a shadowy corner of the room, hidden by a large chest of drawers that had worked itself away from the wall with the constant movement of the ship.

Obviously tired, the Roman captain flopped onto the bed, disregarding the lack of the presence of the girl on his bed, and oblivious to one of Damais' feet sticking out from behind the tall chest.

000

Ankh surged into a sitting position on the ground, close to the fire of the camp and covered with the large leaves of an oasis plant. A boy sat opposite from her across the fire, prodding it. His blue eyes looked like a silver liquid in the firelight.

"Is something wrong?" he asked. His voice was heavy with sleep. He didnt' know about her awareness yet, and she didn't want him to worry.

But the vision Damais had just had, and knowing that Tine had seen it just seconds after it happened compelled her to tell him what she saw.

With a shake of her head, she strengthened her resolve. "I'm aware, Gahiji," she said. "I know exactly what's happening _as_ it's happening. I don't even have to be looking. I just know. Like I know that Shu just opened one eye at me and rolled over to go back to sleep just now." She continued to relate her tale of running, and meeting Tine and Damais, and how she had commited a most terrible sin in slapping the pharaoh, and then the vision.

After a while, Gahiji said, "That's crazy." Ankh groaned wearily, rubbing at her eyes. Just when Ankh thought that he was going to continue, he sighed in resignation. "I believe you're telling me the truth, though." She cast him a sharp glance, but he wasn't looking at her. There was something in his tone that made her uneasy and set her on edge, but she wasn't sure if it was a good or bad tone. She cautiously watched his profile in the firelight, watched him frown into the darkness. After a few long moments of silence -- broken only by the quiet popping of the fire -- Gahiji stood and smiled.

Immediately she remembered _that_. That smile she didn't like to see him wear. It reminded her of a mask, looking perfectly calm and happy and confident, but it was still a _mask_, forced into that form, that disguise of nonchalance. He wore that same smile after sunrise, after something... _something happened_, and she _couldn't remember it_!

"We just have to get you back to the palace, then, won't we?" he said.

Ankh flew to her feet. She was absolutely beside herself. "You'll go with me?" she asked of him. He nodded. "You'll really help me go?" Again he nodded. That mask-smile faded some, turned more real.

Suddenly he was serious again. "We have to leave well before daybreak," he said. "If we don't, Fukanya will never let us go."

A resolute nod was the reply. As Gahiji settled back down for the night (both of them knowing he would wake every few hours and they would not be late) Ankh smoothed out her nest again. She couldn't bring herself to lay down and try to sleep. Instead, she watched the night sky, and the stars drift in the sky goddess's robes. Her stomach churned with urgency, knowing her time was running out.

Something told her it had started running out long ago.

000

Dawn found Ankh evading the palace guard and infiltrating the pharaoh's quarters. When she hadn't found Tine in her room, she became suspicious. Was it another sin to doubt the pharaoh? Probably, but that didn't matter. Things were taking priority in her mind, and while the pharaoh was on the list, he wasn't the most important. She chalked it up as another sin, and promised every god and goddess she could name that she would atone for it later.

The pharaoh tossed in his sleep, his brow creased and sweat beading on his skin. Ankh breifly wondered if he was having a nightmare.

Did gods have nightmares? Did they even dream?

With a cry of alarm, the pharaoh bolted upright in his bed. Ankh stood calmly nearby. She surprised herself at how calm she was. For a girl that had only seen sixteen harvests, she felt like she had somehow taken too much onto herself. A thought struck her. How many harvests had the _pharaoh_ seen? Maybe seventeen, but he was surely born in **peret**. He couldn't have even been an entire year ahead of her.

The pharaoh panted several times, shaking his head. In carrying out this motion he noticed Ankh. Exclaiming her name in surprise, he stood and walked over to her.

Before he could say anything, Ankh was talking. "Where are Tine and Damais?" she demanded.

Swallowing past the overwhelming feeling of absolute _failure_, the pharaoh stared hard at the ground to his side. "They left in search of you. Tine left on the same day you did, and Damais the day following."

Suppressing a wild urge to scream, Ankh growled, "I'm going to go find them." With that she started to make her way out.

"W-wait!" the pharaoh shouted.

"What?" she asked, not turning around.

"You can't go!"

"Why not?"

"B-because you... you're the person that I've come to care most about! The one that... I've come closest to falling in love with!"

Ankh turned around to face him with a dubious stare. There were a few moments of silence. "Would you listen to yourself?" she asked incredulously.

The expression the pharaoh wore was as close to a defensive pout as she supposed anyone had ever seen on him. "I had to say _something_ to get you to stay."

It took Ankh a moment to realize what she was thinking was true. "You're lonely," she said, sounding boarderline surprised. She almost laughed. Instead, she setting on grinning. "Relax... I'll save our friends."

000

That night, Ankh and Gahiji bought their way onto a charter ship, the expenses paid for expressly by the pharaoh. In the passenger holds beneath the deck, several suspicious stow-aways waited for the right moment to spring into action.

When the ship finally caught its quarry, the sea was covered with fog so thick as to be suffocating. The captain relied on Ankh's awareness to steer them in the right direction of the pirate ship.

The deck was eerily empty when Ankh and Gahiji swung aboard.

00000

I'M SO FRIKKEN SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG! Oi, I hate life. Not that I'd trade it for anything. Anyway, I think the plot picks up from here, and it'll take a while to get done. Thank god for Thanksgiving break. I'm pretty sure I'll have something up by Christmas break, if not sooner. I'm getting back in the swing of things, and drawing is finally taking it's rightful place -- BEHIND WRITING!


End file.
